Lobbyist back in the hot seatas MPs revisit prebudget leak

Lynne Hamilton, vice-president of GCI Group, was on the hot seat again Tuesday morning to answer questions about an email she received on the Confidential Draft Report on Prebudget Consultations.

She first appeared before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs on Dec. 14 with four other lobbyists, all of whom received the Confidential Draft Report in November from Russell Ullyatt, then a staffer for Conservative MP Kelly Block.

On Tuesday, however, she was the lone witness to return.

Committee members from all parties, many of whom found her previous testimony lacking credibility, peppered her for a second time with questions that bordered on accusations.

Again, much was made of her “I heart you” response to Ullyatt’s email.

Why — asked many members of the committee — if she didn’t think she was getting something privileged, would she reply with such affection?

As Liberal MP Marcel Proulx pointed out, “Mr. Ullyatt, in his testimony, said that the ‘I heart email’ was, he believed, based upon your appreciation of his efforts to give you inside information.”

Hamilton said she replied that way because she was “appreciative of the fact that Mr. Ullyat had thought enough to send me a document.

“I did not think for one second,” she continued, “believe it was a confidential document or was inappropriate to send.”

Replied Proulx: “He could’ve sent you the schedule for the Ottawa Senators and you would’ve responded the same way?”

For the most part, the committee followed a similar line of questioning. Most wanted to know how a woman with Hamilton’s background and expertise could have been oblivious to the fact she was receiving a confidential document.

She attributed that mistake to a combination of information overload, distraction, and confusing FINA (Standing Committee on Finance) for Final.

Unsatisfied, Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski asked, “I mean — this is your job, right? You’re supposed to be aware of these things, so you can advise your clients accordingly.”

Lukiwski was incredulous as to how Hamilton could be unaware that she had received “an important pre-budget consultation document, from the Standing Committee on Finance, which the Minister of Finance will use quite routinely to perhaps formulate budgetary policy.”

In the end, only Conservative MP Terence Young came to Hamilton’s defence. Having experience in her line of work, he allowed that it can be easy to get distracted.

With both her competence and integrity challenged, the consensus was that further questioning amounted to flogging a dead horse.

“It’s becoming circular now,” said NDP MP David Cristopherson. “And unless there’s new information, my sense is we’re just going to keep going round and round. And really the next step would really have to be to increase the pressure, and I’m just not convinced this is the right place for that.”